Conveying means for driers



E. B. AYRES AND W. H. RIHL.

CONVEYING MEANS FOR DRIERS.

APPLICATION FILED JAN. 15. I920.

1,358,497, Patented Nov. 9, 1920.

UNlTED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

ELWOOD B. AYRES AND WILLIAM LLRIHL, OF PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA,

ASSIGNORS TO THE PHILADELPHIA TEXTILE MACHINERY COMPANY, OF PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA, A CORPORATION OF PENNSYLVANIA.

CONVEYING MEANS FOR DRIERS.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Nov. 9, 1920.

To all whom it may concern.

Be it known that we, ELWoon B. Areas and VVILLIAM EL, RIHL, citizens of the United States, and residents of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, have invented Certain Improvements in Conveying Means for Briers, of which the following is a specification.

Our invention relates to improvements in driers in which heated air is circulated in a drying chamber and in which the material being dried is carried through the chamher.

The object of the invention is to support and carry boards, such as plaster boards, using a particular form of conveyor which carries the board in a vertical position.

in the accompanying drawings:

Figure 1 is a side elevation, partly in section, illustrating a drier equipped with our improved board-carrying conveyor;

Fig. 2 is a transverse sectional view; and

3 is an enlarged view illustrating the upper and lower chains and the means for supporting the boards in a vertical position.

1 is a drying chamber. On each side of the drying chamber, in the present instance, are heating chambers 2, having coils of steam pipes 8. The particular arrangement of the heating system may be modified without departing from the essential features of the invention.

l is a transverse partition forming a circulating chamber 5 directly above the drying chamber. 6, 6 are fans mounted on vertical shafts 7 driven by horizontal shafts 8, in the present instance, through gearing so as to circulate the air through the drying, heating and circulatingchambers. 9 and 10 are two tracks spaced apart. 11 is an endless chain conveyer, which passes around wheels 12 and 12 one at each side of the apparatus, and the return run of the conveyor passes over the rails 13, as shown in Fig. 2.

Connecting each side chain is a series of channel sections 14, shown clearly in Fig. 8. These channel sections have flanges ex tending upward and forming sockets for the lower ends of the boards a which, in the present instance, are plaster boards.

15 are upper chains adapted to the tracks 9 within the drying chamber. The return runs of these chains are adapted to tracks 16 supported above the drying chamber, as clearly shown in Figs. 1 and 2. The chains are connected together bya series of rods or tubes 17 spaced a given distance apart so as to allow the boards a to extend into the spaces between the rods and thus the boards will be held loosely in a substantially vertical position. The chains 15 of the conveyer pass around sprocket wheels 18, one of which may be driven. The upper and lower chains 15 and 11 travel at the same speed.

The boards are placed by an operator in the sockets of the lower chains and between the rods of the upper chain at the feed end of the machine, the chains extending a suflicient distance beyond the drying chamher, as shown in Fig. 1, to allow for the proper placing of the boards. As the boards travel through the machine, they are dried by the air which is circulated by the fans 6.

The drier may be divided into a series of compartments, or there may be a single compartment in which a series of fans circulate the air, so that the length of the drying apparatus and the speed of the chains will be regulated by the time it takes to dry the boards. /Vhen the boards are discharged at the delivery end of the conveyer, they are in a dried condition.

lVhile our invention is especially adapted for drying plaster boards, which are usually of considerable size and comparatively thin, it may be used for drying other boards, or for drying material secured to boards or frames.

l/Ve claim:

The combination in a conveying means, of two endless chains, one having a series of sockets to support the lower end of the boards to be conveyed, the other chain having rods spaced apart between which the upper portions of the boards extend; and means for driving the chains in unison so that the boards will be conveyed in a substantially vertical position.

ELWOOD B. AYRES. WVM. H. RIHL. 

